One Major Question from the Return of Downton Abbey

Last night, Downton Abbey returned to television in here in the US for Season 5 of the critically-acclaimed show.

Yes, I realize much of the rest of the world has already had access to this season, and it aired in Britain earlier in 2014. But since we live in America, we get to declare ourselves more important than the rest of the world. That’s just how patriotism works. (Kidding…sort of)

Anyway, I’m glad Downton is back. I thoroughly enjoy the show and the glimpses it provides into Edwardian England. However, I came away from last night’s episode with a major question.

You can see the pot in the bottom right-hand corner of the picture above. Furthermore, you can see its lid in the background. It’s massive.

It appeared to be a good 8-10 inches deep and wide and about 24-30 inches long. If it were filled with a meat and braising liquid, it would easily weigh in the neighborhood of 40-60 pounds.

So, what was that pot? What would one cook in that? And better yet, what oven would hold that thing?

Any ideas?

UPDATE: The mystery has been solved. Thanks to a tweet from Pam Earls, I was able to narrow down the results and discovered it was a fish poacher. The size and shape allows you to poach an entire fish in a single pan. Calphalon makes a modern version. You can see that here.

1 Comment

Stacey
on January 5, 2015 at 1:54 pm

Yes, but it’s currently unavailable on Amazon. Please don’t dangle carrots like that anymore.